Tuesday, October 18, 2011

President Obama: Respect workers’ Rights - Emancipate United States Postal Workers PART I

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In a June 9, 2009 speech in Cairo, President Obama told the people of Egypt, “ But I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose. Those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere.”
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That was powerful and soaring rhetoric, but talk is cheap. If president Obama is truly concerned about improving the conditions of the poor and middle class, he should start by addressing the gross abuses of same by his very own United States Postal Service. The postal service is the second largest employer of middle-class workers in the United States, yet, in spite of what President Obama pledged to the Egyptian people above, the conditions under which postal employees are forced to exist are just as unjust and emotionally brutal as on any plantation. I recently received the following letter from a Los Angeles letter carrier:
..“My name is Sylvester Burton. I’ve been a postal carrier of ten years, and I work out of the Rimpau Station here in Los Angeles. On August 13, 2011, while out on my route I noticed that I had accidently left some of my mail back at the station, which is a common thing carriers do every now and then due to the pressure that management puts us to get us out of the station on time. So I called back to see if the mail left behind was still there. I was going to go back and get it, then charge the travel time there and back against my 30 minute lunch. But I was informed that Juanita Hamblet, my supervisor, was on her way to bring it to me. So I move to the next block and resume delivery so I wouldn’t have to waste time sitting waiting..“A short time later Ms. Hamblet pulled up on the opposite side of the corner from where I had parked. Then in a volatile, agitated, loud tone she said, ‘Why are you just realizing you left this mail behind? And why didn’t you call back?’ To which, I told her that I had just reached the part of the route where the mail was missing. I also explained to her that did call. She then said, ‘I'm going to do a street observation!’ I didn’t have any problem with that, so I just got the mail from the back of the vehicle and resumed delivery..“At 12:02 p.m. I drove to Subway for lunch and finished at 12:32 p.m. I start delivery at 1297 Cochran and finished that swing at 12:52 p.m. Then just after I got into my vehicle Ms. Hamblet pulled up and walks across the street toward my vehicle, and shouting in a very loud voice. ‘Where were you for the last 50 minutes?’ I explained to her that I had gone to lunch for 30 minutes and delivered mail for 18 minutes. I then asked her, very politely, to tone her voice down and stop harassing me..“She then walked up to me, her hand in my face and said, ‘I CAN HARASS YOUR ASS AS MUCH AS I WANT, AND I WILL CONTINUE TO HARRASS YOUR ASS. I DON'T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOU BURTON - I THINK YOUR ASS IS GAY. TAKE YOUR ASS BACK TO THE STATION, I’M GONNA CALL THE POSTAL POLICE ON YOUR ASS!’.“So I pulled about 8 feet away from her and parked, wondering if I should follow this woman’s instructions or ignore her and finish delivering mail. Then she walked up to me again, and said, ‘I SAID TAKE YOUR ASS BACK TO THE STATION! THAT’S A DIRECT ORDER!’.When we got back to the station she ran into Mrs. Stanley’s office and told the manager that I called her a bitch, I threatened her, and that I almost ran over her. She also said that I was a coward and she was intimidated by my presence.
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Customer Statement

Atten: Miss Stanley, Station ManagerTo Whom It May Concern:

“My name is Elizabeth Crawford. I along with my wife Michelle Lo, own 1293-1295 S. Cochran. Avenue, Los Angeles, Ca 90019. On August 13, 2011 we were landscaping our front yard and witnessed an altercation between our mail carrier, Sylvester Burton and a woman whom I later learned was Juanita, his supervisor.

“At first I only heard a woman (Juanita) shouting and cursing. Since my back was to them I did not see who was yelling. Then I saw our letter carrier Mr. Burton drive by in his mail truck and pull over to the curb just past our driveway. A black woman raced over to the now parked mail truck cursing and shouting at Mr. Burton saying “you tried to run me over” and that she was going to “call the police”. As I watched I became very very alarmed because I could not tell at first from the casual attire she was clothed in that she was a postal employee. All I could see was an extremely unhinged woman going ballistic and attacking our mailman. I watched Juanita as she reached inside the mail truck and shook her hand in Mr. Burton’s face as she shouted ‘I don’t give a fuck about you and by the way I think your ass is GAY!’ Then she shouted ‘you take your ass back to the station right now…this is MYROUTE MY ROUTE…and you take your ass back to the station right now...’ She then shouted ‘I’m calling the postal police on your ass you take your ass back to the station right now.’

“Mr. Burton drove away in the mail truck. I don’t know what Mr. Burton was saying in response to all this as he NEVER raised his voice or shouted back during the entire episode.

“My entire family including my seven year-old niece had to witness this entirely unprofessional vulgar outburst. The cursing and swearing peppered with the f-word and the homophobic remarks was nothing less than shocking and completely inappropriate. I was extremely offended by her homophobic remarks and I am myself gay, not to mention the cursing and swearing in front of our child.

“Don’t know and I really don’t care what prompted Juanita’s tirade. I was shocked to see someone in a so-called “supervisory position” treating someone who works for her so brutally. Needless to say law in the state of California the law prohibits the attack on Mr. Burton based on his sexual identification in the workplace! You should take note of this.

“You need to DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS WOMAN. While representing the USPS no one should be able to behave that badly and make that big of a scene in public plus publicly attacking a subordinates sexual orientation and be allowed to keep their job. “If Mr. Burton sues for harassment I will gladly be a witness on his behalf.”

Signed,
M. Elizabeth J. Crawford

Employee Statement Regarding Supervisor

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Postal Service Response

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In other words, we spoke to her - but we can't tell you what we said - now, go away. The fact is, the postal service doesn't see this sort of thing as a problem. Instead of viewing this as not only unprofessional behavior, but a serious civil rights issue that needs immediate attention, the postal service views it as business as usual. The only reason it's being addressed at all is because this particular employee is making such a big fuss over it that it needs to be managed just to keep his mouth shut.
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Clear evidence of that is the fact that the above letter to Mr. Burton came from the manager of Human Resources. If the postal service thought the matter required corrective action, Mr. Burton would have been contacted by the manager of Labor Relations. He's the one who handles corrective action, but Labor Relations claims that the matter hadn't even been brought to their attention. That's hard to believe since it was brought to the attention of the union. So what's going on here? How could the union and Human Resources know about a matter as serious as this, but not Labor Relations?
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And what happened to the supervisor's claim that she'd been threatened by Mr. Burton, that he tried to run over her, and she felt intimidated by his presence? Those allegations seemed to have simply evaporated once it was found that there were witnesses to the incident.
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Over the past two years we've written over twenty articles on the postal service's abusive tactics against it's employees, because we've long since recognized that the United States Postal Service is a microcosm of the United States as a whole, and its employees represent a change in our government's attitude towards poor and middle-class Americans as a whole.
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You see, the postal service doesn't merely treat its employees with disdain, it also has little respect for its customers - that is, unless the customer has wealth and power. But if you happen to be poor or middle class, they'll bat you away like a fly. So this is far from simply a labor issue. It's a political issue that has a direct impact on ALL 99ers, so it needs to be embraced by the "Occupy Movement," and shoved directly in Obama's face during this political season.
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This is the perfect issue to see exactly where President Obama really stands with respect to the poor and middle class in this country. Since the postal service is a United States government agency, Obama doesn't need congress to bring its abuses to an end. He could bring it to an end with a phone call during lunch. So the question is, why is he allowing this employee abuse to go on? After all, the Postmaster General is merely an overseer. The President of the United States is the plantation master.
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So we should all follow this case and the many others like it. They represent the perfect barometer for measuring the decline of the American middle class. They also clearly demonstrate that the institutions that the American people once depended upon to defend their interests are now nothing more than collapsible, movie-set backdrops, designed to give Americans the illusion of justice. But don't take my word for it, try suing a major corporation. You'll find in very short order that while justice may be blind, it's only blind to the abuse of the poor and middle class. It has 20/20 vision when it comes to protecting the interest of the rich.
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So if we want this to remain America, we've got to turn this around - if it's not already too late.

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Doesn't the postal service claim they're suffering from a lack of business?

Now you see why, and you also see what our government thinks of 99ers.

We've got to get their attention. As the lady in the above video indicated, ALL government officials are OUR employees, not the reverse.

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And finally, how can we honor our veterans while abusing our postal workers? After all, veterans are postal workers too.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

The spontaneous demonstrations that are taking place on Wall Street and across the country should be seen as both good news, and bad news for President Obama. On the one hand, they indicate that the people are waking up to reality, but on the other, it means that they’ve come to the conclusion that if they want to survive they can’t depend on the help of politicians - and that includes Obama.

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So it’s time for Obama to wake up as well. The time has come for him to open his eyes to an ugly reality - we’re knee-deep in a class war. So if he intends to win the coming election it is incumbent upon him to make a clear distinction between himself and the GOP. If he fails to do so, the next election is going to be a toss up.
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The days of compromise and bipartisanship have past. The GOP has long since made it abundantly clear that they’re on a single-minded mission to lower the standard of living of the American middle class. So at this point in our history, the people don’t need a calm and reasonable diplomat; they’re in desperate need of a no-nonsense, fire-breathing general at the helm.
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Earlier in his administration when he tried to appeal to the GOP's "good sense and responsibility," many might have disagreed with his approach, but they gave him the benefit of the doubt because they assumed that he was trying to raise the level of statesmanship in Washington, D.C. But now, after the GOP has made it clear that they’re willing to hold the entire nation hostage in order to get the most minor of perks for those who are already filthy rich, to hear the President of the United States running around Washington asking "Can we all get along?" makes him look like the quintessential wimp, and the American people don’t like wimps - that’s one characteristic that ALL Americans have in common.
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Thus, while many of us breathed a sigh of relief when the president introduced his jobs proposal, it was only because we were encouraged by seeing a little starch in his spine. But the fact is, just like in his stimulus package, he’s not going far enough. He's still trying to straddle the fence. All that's going to do is keep everyone upset with him. He's tried appealing to those who hate him and all that did was make him look weak. Now it's time to appease his base, if it's not too late. After all, those are the ones who got him elected.
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As any marine - or anyone who grew up in the ghetto - can tell you, it's useless to try to engage in half-a-fight. You have to either go for broke, or run. Thus, since regardless to what kind of proposal Obama puts forward the GOP is going to fight it tooth-and-nail, the president might as well tell them he’s not going to sign any bill that places the poor and middle class in any further distress, he’s going to bring these senseless wars to an end, and he's going to completely abolish the Bush bonuses to the rich. If he did just those three things, it would place the nation back on an even keel, and he'd regain much of his base. But if he fails to do so he's going to go into the 2012 election as a man without a solid constituency, and that's not a winning strategy.
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You see, what the nation is currently going through is a manufactured crisis. The GOP purposely dragged the country under the bus in order to justify attacking the programs put in place under the New Deal and later legislation. Programs like Social Security, Medicare, and the Fair Labor Standards Act, that protect the interest of the poor and middle class, have been a thorn in the GOP’s side for over seventy years, but the programs were much too popular among the people to attack head on. So under Bush, they ravaged the treasury by literally throwing away money in Iraq - there are billions of dollars that’s still not accounted for - and at the same time, they gave the rich the biggest tax cut in the nation’s history. Now, they’re claiming that we’re so broke that they’re FORCED to make the poor and middle class suffer to get us out of it. That’s ridiculous! Why should the poor and middle class suffer while the top 1% of the country is enjoying a bonus?
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In addition, the GOP is now trying to justify this totally unconscionable situation by claiming that it makes perfect sense, because "it is the rich who create jobs." That’s even more nonsense. Jobs are created by the poor and middle class when they spend money on goods and services. It doesn’t matter how much money we give the rich, if average people don’t have money in their pockets to buy goods and services, the rich aren’t going to hire anyone to produce goods and services. If you make widgets and no one has the money to buy them, are you going to waste your money hiring people to make them? Of course not - it doesn't matter how big a tax cut they give you. Clear evidence of that is the fact that the economy tanked, and no jobs were created under President Bush, who promoted the very same policies that the GOP is advocating that we go back to.
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And the GOP knows they're scamming the American people. That's why they're determined to see to it that the poor and middle class don’t have two extra nickels to rub together, because the Republicans know that if the people are allowed to get their hands on any money from any source, they’re going to spend that money, and that’s going to create jobs, and the jobs will generate tax revenue that will help relieve the deficit, and that in turn, will cause the GOP scam to completely unravel. Because, you see, the GOP has a vested interest in keeping the American people miserable, angry, and divided until the next election. That’s their only chance to regain power. That's also why Governor Rick Perry, Republican of Texas, literally threatened Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke bodily harm if he printed any more money between now and the election. Perry said, "If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I dunno what y’all would do to him in Iowa, but we would treat him pretty ugly down in Texas."
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So President Obama needs to stop playing footsy with these people. He should stand firm, start educating the people, and begin systematically unraveling this Republican scam. Then, if the GOP begins to obstruct, they’ll also be revealing their treachery against the American people.

Saturday, October 01, 2011

Herman Cain claims that the reason that black people won’t support him is that they’ve been brainwashed. And many conservatives are saying Cain is President Obama’s worst nightmare. I would have loved to have been in the White House when those statements came out. In spite of Obama’s laid-back demeanor, I’d be willing to bet that he was laughing so hard that he was rolling on the floor of the Oval Office in tears.
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One would think that this man would have sense enough to know that no one takes him seriously - and especially the GOP. And if the GOP had ever taken the time to truly get to know the Black community, they’d know that the only thing more toxic to Black people than a flat-out racist, is a Black conservative (with the notable exception of Colin Powell, because he’s not really a conservative - he was just smart enough to flimflam the overseer, instead of the reverse).
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Most Black people have very little use for Black conservatives. It's not that we disagree with everything they say, but because we’re suspect of the reasons they're saying it. With the possible exception of those who believe in talkin’ snakes, virtually without exception, every Black conservative I've ever known was a self-serving opportunist. Their conservatism tends not to be so much grounded in their actual philosophy, as it is an opportunity to gain exposure and wealth. They realize that conservatives are looking high and low for Black people willing to step forward to validate their views toward the Black community. So they gleefully allow themselves to be used in return for personal wealth, position, and notoriety.
.Clarence Thomas is a case in point. There is no way that a man of his renowned level of mediocrity should be sitting on the highest court in this land - in fact, he shouldn't even be allowed to sit in traffic court. But due exclusively to his willingness to validate the conservative view of Black America, he's been given one of this nation's highest honors. Thus, Thomas' very presence on the Supreme Court is a stain on American values, our fidelity to jurisprudence, and an unabashed affront to every Black person in America.
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Clarence Thomas is allowing himself to be used as a national monument to every negative stereotype of Black people ever put forward - grinnin’, subservient, lazy, White-woman-lustin’, treacherous, dishonest, and ignorant. Then every time there’s a State of the Union address, Black people are forced to sit and look at his lecherous ass.
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So the Black community looks upon Clarence Thomas in precisely the same way as White Americans look upon a man guilty of treason against the United States - and other Black conservatives are not far behind. Why? Because most of these people would have happily voted against the Civil Rights Act in order to promote their own personal interest if they'd had the chance. And to demonstrate how transparent they are, Thomas took the unprecedented action of lobbying his colleagues to except what has now clearly been demonstrated to be a meritless challenge to Barack Obama's eligibility to become President of the United States, while he didn't say a word as the Supreme Court casually APPOINTED George Bush president after he lost the 2000 election. And with respect to the challenge to Obama, it took his colleagues, some of the most conservative White men in the country, to tell Thomas that he was going too far - and now Herman Cain says it is Black people who are brainwashed?
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People like Thomas and Cain tend to be self-serving accommdationists who are wholly lacking in character. Black people have suffered a long history of such people, going all the way back to slavery - in fact, it was probably a Clarence Thomas clone who sold us into slavery in the first place. These were the very same people who would informed on slaves who were trying to escape to freedom: "I don't know what's wrong wit him, boss. Ya jest can't get him to appreciate nothin' you do for us. What he needs is a real good beatin'. Want me to do it? I’ll do it real good for ya, boss."
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So having Clarence Thomas sitting on the Supreme Court, with his happy, grinnin’ face, his eager to please attitude, and his quintessential ignorance, is a bad joke at the expense of the Black community. His presence is the equivalent of giving every Black person in America the finger. It wouldn’t be any more insulting to Black people if they chiseled a picture of Buckwheat on the Supreme Court seal.
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And now we have another ‘happy face,’ in the person of Herman Cain, saying that Black people won’t support him and his fascist overseers because we’re brainwashed? And worse, we get this from a Black man whose advice to Black people during the deepest recession since the Great Depression is to, "Get a job!" Please! This is an absolute idiot.
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Get out the whip, Rush - it sounds like Herman's been into your stash.

Society Of Professional Journalists

Eric L. Wattree

Strive To Become Your Own Hero... Then Let No One Remove Your Cape.

BIO

Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet, and musician, born in Los Angeles. He’s been a columnist for The Los Angeles Sentinel, Black Star News, The Atlanta Post, and is a member of the Sigma Delta Chi Society of Professional Journalists (http://www.spj.org/). He’s also the author of "A Message From the Hood."Some of the greatest minds I’ve ever known held court while sitting on empty milk crates in the parking lots of ghetto liquor stores, while some of the weakest minds I’ve ever known roamed the halls of academia in pursuit of credentials over knowledge.Eric L. Wattreehttp://www.whohub.com/wattree

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Am I a hater, you ask? You're damn right I'm a hater. I hate injustice. I hate hypocrisy. I also hate demagoguery, apathy, and the stupidity that allows it to exist. Hater? Absolutely. I'm a big time hater. I hate what I see happening to this country, and I hate watching the development of a culture that embraces ignorance with a stupid sense of pride. So yes, I am indeed a hater, but not only that - I'm a hater with a very low threshold for bullshit, so step off.